What's new

Weddings on a Budget

kimingvtx

kimingvtx

I'll try anything once!
Joined
Dec 31, 2015
Messages
1,304
My daughter is getting married in July 2017.

She told me that one place that she picked to cake test charges $500 for a 3 tier cake plus a grooms cake and if we think we need more, we can order an additional sheetcake for $175!!!!

My husband just laughed -- he told me to take $175 to Costco and I'd get enough cake for everyone plus anybody just wandering by! I think I've talked my daughter into getting a much smaller cake for cutting and then reasonably priced sheet cakes for serving.

I did insist that she pick a photographer that includes a print release form. She has picked a good one -- so that part is done.

Does anyone else have any cost cutting ideas? I have enough saved for this to not have to cut every corner -- but I'm definitely cutting where I can!
 
my son and precious DIL did it so economical. The brides family was not wealthy, and my son has saved for years for this particular young lady. Her dress was bought on line for less than $70, and afterwards her grandma helped her resew it and dye it to rewear. The biggest expense was the reception, and I do those on a monthly basis. So we hosted it at our home. It was part of our gift. Brisket, cole slaw, baked beans and rolls, sweet tea, punch and water.

The best way to help her budget is to say, this is what I have to give to you for a gift.

Set an amount, anything you use comes out of that, whatever is left is yours to keep to set up your household! lol MOTIVATION! tee hee

We have raised our kids to think that good pots and pans are more important than a big diamond on your finger. lol Maybe too practical, but it helped! lol
It is one day, and exhausting for all involved. I agree photos were to me, the ONE thing I really wanted, and did not want to be the one to do them.
 
oh oh and congratulations!! it is so so awesome and I adore weddings and seeing others make the biggest and best step!
 
When we got married way back in 1996 we each picked one thing that was most important and splurged only on that. For me it was photography. I found a photographer whose specialty was sports so he got some great photos of the excitement of the day. For my husband, the most important thing was the music. In addition to a DJ for the reception, he hired a quartet for the ceremony.

For everything else we went with the basics or whatever his mom wanted to do (because she was very interested and helped pay for it).

p.s. I agree about the cake. I remember almost nothing about any of the food at my wedding. I remember the excitement and being surrounded by so many people who know us.
 
do you have friends/family who hav skills you can use, an honorary aunt of mine was a dressmaker who made my dress, do you know eople who can sew, cook flower arrange and would be willing to help?
 
gillscott said:
do you have friends/family who hav skills you can use, an honorary aunt of mine was a dressmaker who made my dress, do you know eople who can sew, cook flower arrange and would be willing to help?
Click to expand...

I have a very detailed friend who I've asked to be "Day of Wedding Coordinator". I've also asked my very talented friend to make centerpieces. Yesterday another friend who has a daughter getting married told me that she had hired a "day of wedding coordinator" for $1000! My friends are doing these out of love! I'll get them gifts! So, yes, I'm asking where I can!
 
Oooh, oooh, oooh! I love this topic. Hubby and I got married in 2010, and our entire thing cost around $3000.
The ceremony was held at a tiny little place during the week to be cheaper. We were allowed 20 guests, but unlimited wedding party members, so I made my closest friends my wedding party, and hubby did the same, so our family could watch. The place/ceremony was $250.
The reception was at my parent's home, with decorations we made or borrowed. There was a small table of fruit and treats and a chocolate fountain, and it was intended to be a "come and go" type thing, but everyone came at once... this was opened up to more extended friends and family, so I'd guess 100 people or so came.

My friend and prior roommate made our cake, it was her very first one, and I was very impressed with how it came out!

Jimmy knew someone who did flowers, so we got maybe a 10% discount on about 6 bouquets and 6 man-boquets... boutonnieres? (:giggle) I think it was $200 ish, too.

My dress was off the 50% quincieniera rack, and we sewed pink butterflies on it.
My friends did my hair and makeup for me (I am challenged in this area :giggle).
Hubby and his friends wore suits but not tuxes, and really only had to buy their blue ties. My bridesmaids were told to wear "a black cocktail dress" with no other limitations (I wanted them to use what they had, or something they could wear again)

My photographer was also a friend, the only friend I ever want doing my photos. I told her ahead of time, we only wanted the ceremony, some bride/groom pics, and a handful of reception pictures, nothing printed, just a CD of edited and unedited and copyrights, which she did... unfortunately, there was a camera battery issue, so we didn't get the ceremony pictures from her, and she gave me half my money back :D (I ended up paying her $100 total)

We didn't have music at our reception, though i had planned to hook an iPod/mp3 player up to some speakers outside, but forgot. :giggle

Our honeymoon was awesome... we did a few days here in AZ, spending time with family that made the trip here. (A friend of mine worked at a resort at the time and got us in a nicer suite for cheap!) and then a few days in San Diego... one of my bridesmaids was on her way to California also, so she gave me her hotel reward points and checked us in to a hotel, and then she was the one that did our trash the dress photos on LaJolla Beach.

All in all... my friends made it awesome, so the day was so much more about family and the celebration. I absolutely loved my wedding day. If I could do it all over again, I might have changed the day, so that it wasn't sooooo hot (July 30 in AZ, it was humid, sprinkling randomly, at over 100 degrees), or *maybe* picked a different venue, where we could have been inside more. Everything else, to me, was awesome. But definitely a lot of work, for a lot of people. :)
 
I was a single mom with no money, so I had to do it all myself. I made my own save the dates and invitations. That saved a bunch. I made all of the decorations and favors. My friend made the cake after the bakery took my deposit and wouldn't do the cake I'd ordered. So we used the deposit for cookies. The time of day for the wedding reception is important because if you do it right, no one expects a meal/lot of food. I lucked out and got the dress at a going out of business sale.

My friend had her wedding during the warmer months, so I pointed out the flower bouquets for super cheap at Farmers Markets and then buy inexpensive glasses or Mason jars to put them in and reuse them later. She got a ton of flowers for hardly any money and it looked great. I did a grooms cake for her, and people ended up eating more of that cake and liking it better than her dry bakery cake (she was so frustrated). I burned a bunch of mix cds for her and did her music. Totally easy. And I think she paid a girl scout troop to come in and do the cleanup, so that saved her as well.
 
Have you and your daughter looked into naked cakes?

Less icing = less labour intensive = less money

Also, in my opinion, they taste way better.
 
Talented friends and family willing to help out in different areas is the way to go. Our wedding last year was a lot of DIY.

My sister has hospitality industry experience, so she helped me negotiate and make decisions about the reception venue/decor. She knows flower arranging and made the boutonnieres (sp?). She had access to a wholesale flower warehouse where I got tons of flowers for a good price. My bridesmaids and I made our bouquets the day before (watch YouTube videos, it's super easy and fun) and table centerpieces were super simple plain hydrangea. I had gotten a small amount of flowers the month before to practice and see the different combinations. I got vases in bulk from the Dollar Store, bulk tea lights from Amazon. If you just do bouquets you could probably buy several bunches from a grocery store and arrange those.


I splurged mainly on the venue because it was gorgeous and didn't need much decoration anyway (see my gallery :)) but we did a Sunday night so the rental was cheaper. They had staff to setup and cleanup the tables/chairs and coordinate the entire evening. I'd been to weddings where friends of the bride/groom did ALL of that and that seemed like way too much work.

I did ask a super organized friend to coordinate our decor the day of and I planned that all out ahead of time with notes of where things went. She also had a DIY photobooth backdrop and accessories that she brought.

Our photographer was a friend who is an "accomplished amateur" but he's done other weddings and I'd seen his photos so I trusted him. And he did photography as a fundraiser for breast cancer research. We got our album printed at Costco.

I designed the save the dates and invites (scrapping skills!) and printed them at Costco. I made a photo album guest book at Costco.

My dress was a miracle gift and only needed alterations. I got my veil and hair accessories from Etsy (somewhat of a splurge). A cheap necklace from Icing. I found cheap shoes on Amazon and added a flower I got on Etsy.

We used an online camera rental service for the video and that let us incorporating our friends clips too (from Instagram or Facebook). More of a home video style but I mainly wanted that for the ceremony. I had a friend setup the cameras and tripods for the ceremony, and asked him to video the special parts of the reception. We were blessed by a friend gifting us a highlight video of the day that she filmed herself and that came out beautifully.

I didn't care about a fancy cake, so we got a bundt cake for ourselves and mini bundtinis (basically cupcakes) for everyone else. My mom and sister had several cake tiers we used to make the table pretty.

I teach piano lessons and I had a talented high school student who played for the ceremony. Music for the reception was on an Spotify playlist. One friend brought sound equipment and another was our emcee.

A friend did my hair and my sister did my makeup. My mom and mother-in-law made mini banana bread loaves for the favors.

Ack this feels like a long post, sorry! But I had a lot of fun planning our wedding and it turned out great. My friends and family being involved made it so personal without being a huge burden on a few people. Happy planning!
 
My friend was able to order all her flowers from costco in bulk then they had a bouquet party the night before assembling all the arrangements. It was SO fun & definitely saved $$ in that department!

We did our wedding on a good budget I thought- we picked things that we KNEW were important- Good food, good booze & good photography! ;) My step dad was (he died a few years back) Dick of Dick's Beer in western WA where we got married, so he provided the booze as gifts to us, we asked my inlaws to get the photographer as our wedding gift & I asked our favorite restaurant if they did catering & what they were willing to do price wise. It all turned out really great!

For our cake- I found a grandma of a friend who did cakes on the side- it was CHEAP and DELICIOUS! She literally made it that morning! So fresh- which is hard to come by with most bakeries these days!

I made all of our paper products- invites, programs & such. In my experience- no one really remembers the table settings or the favors. I think the most important are food, good music & of course pictures! ;)

Good luck & have FUN!!!
 
My wedding was 48 years ago this coming September. And we did a lot of the things ourselves. The reception was held at our church house in the cultural hall. No cost. We bought flowers and had some arrangements made but my Mom was so talented. She got styrofoam balls and covered them with tiny flowers and ivy, put a ribbon hanger on them and my bridesmaids each had one to hang from their wrists. She also helped make their dresses and everyone dyed their shoes to match the dresses. Mom made pill box hats for each girl. They were covered with the fabric the dresses were made from and had little nets attached to them. My husband's aunt made our wedding cake and sheet cakes. All we had to do was buy the ingredients and she did the rest. I wanted one layer of our cake to be chocolate. But that was totally unheard of back then. So we went with spice cake.

My Mom made my dress. It was totally covered with lace and had a lace train that attached to the shoulders of the dress. And she attached netting to a crown that her sister wore for her own wedding and loaned to us for mine. It cost us $50 for the whole outfit. I remember because I was helping to pay for it. I still have my dress. :)

We bought all the candy and nuts for the reception and someone made the punch. Friends and family helped with serving and cleaning up. About the only things we paid outside charges for were the invitations & postage, the flowers and the photographer. I don't know what it all ended up costing my parents, but I don't think it would have been much more than $1,000 if that much.
 
So many great replies -- Thank you! I should have mentioned that the groom is making the wine. He is making blueberry wine which my daughter says that I will love because I like non sweet red wine. He is also making strawberry wine which my husband will like -- he likes pink wine!!! We'll also have beer. But that's it.

She wants BBQ for the reception so we will be checking out a couple places this summer. Too bad Anne of Alamo isn't closer!

My daughter just wants grapes in bowls for centerpieces because we live in Grapevine! She is having her reception at a location on Main Street that she tap danced in when she was younger!
 
Waw, first of all: CONGRATULATIONS!

And ladies, what a great ideas and experiences you are all sharing, I love this!
 
Yes. Congratulations!

The business my son is in relies heavily on personal connections and relationships. Many of his customers are also Italian, Greek, French Canadian, etc. When we started planning the wedding he came to the table with a 300 plus guest list of the ones who might be insulted and stop doing business if they were not invited. I almost died at the thought of having an appropriate wedding with this many guests... Image is a lot in his business....

Final solution, destination wedding. We researched well and found a resort which would give substantial discounts to large groups - sent invites to everyone anyway and let them choose to come or not. This way no one was left out and a surprising number of guests ( way, way less than 300 but still.) Our wedding party was big enough that the resort upgraded everyone to their top venu, did a lot of stuff for free and treated everyone like royalty. Guests received a mid winter get away at about half the price it would have cost through Expedia or a travel agent. We had quite a few takers..

Great cheap vacation for a lot of folks . Wedding was right after Christmas. We footed the bill for bride and groom and split wedding fees with her parents. The kids stayed a week longer for a private honeymoon. They got lots of gifts from everywhere, without anyone feeling obligated to make sure they gave the cost of the dinner plate at a fancy venu ( which seems to be the general Italian thought in Quebec)

All in all it was a great experience. No one felt slighted, the kids got a start to life together and we all had a great winter vacation.
 
klee73010 said:
I might have changed the day, so that it wasn't sooooo hot (July 30 in AZ, it was humid, sprinkling randomly, at over 100 degrees)
Click to expand...
I got married April 10th. It snowed. I'm not sure if freezing or sweating is better :lol

As for tips:
Flowers: Find out what's in season. My cousin grew sunflowers all summer, and in September, she had big beautiful sunflowers as her table decorations, and boutonnières, and bouquet. I did in season flowers, and mine were cheap.

My biggest savings were on the things I didn't care about - music, cake, makeup, hair. I had a college student do the music - he was almost a grad and it was way cheaper because he wanted to put it on his resume. I got a cake from a mom who made them on the side, and had a Costco cake for the guests. My makeup and hair was done by a beauty school student as her portfolio for graduating. It cost me $25. I also rented my dress, and wore $10 tennis shoes.

I also got married on a Tuesday. It was cheaper for everyone, because no one picks Tuesdays. And I spoke to a local printing press and had them print the invites. Because they could do it in off hours, and I didn't have to pay shipping, my invites were cheap. I also picked a standard mailing size so they could be mailed with a regular postage stamp.

I spent money on the photographer, and that makes me happy today. I don't care about any of the other stuff, just that I have nice photos. My photographer was also a student, so he was cheaper, but I also checked out his portfolio before hiring him.

Thing I didn't do: Newspaper announcement. Didn't care then, don't care now.:-)
 
bestcee said:
I got married April 10th. It snowed. I'm not sure if freezing or sweating is better :giggle
Click to expand...

Snow is better. You can always put on more layers. My dress was super thick, so I would have been fine. :giggle

Also... reading Courtney's response... shoes, I bought $10 wedge flip flops for my dress. They were awesome. I decorated them with ribbon and gems and a hot glue gun. (Unfortunately, the ribbon hurt my feet from rubbing.)

I also made every single one of my invites. Knowing my family was the only one getting the "fancy" invite to the ceremony, I printed on vellum and tied some ribbon. The invites to the reception had stamps, embossing, texture plates (which hubby helped with!), ribbons... had a bridesmaid come over to help me put them all together with me.

I made shirts for my bridesmaids for my bridal shower, and shirts for me for day-of/getting ready and I made shirts for my entire wedding party...

Here's a story about that I made during MOC:
Wedding Numbers

Wedding Numbers

  • Media owner klee73010
  • Date added
  • Comments 2

I definitely threw people off when I would talk about what we were doing or not doing for the wedding, because I was a very low key bride. For example, the flower people: "what do you want?" Me: "I don't care. Blue and pink, here's the ribbon." Flower people: "are you sure you don't want more say in this?" Me: "nope. Cheapest option. Thanks."

My mom asking about decorations: "where do you want xyz..." me: "don't care. No preference. Just display the scrapbook over there, everything else, wherever."

I know everyone wanted me to be happy with everything on "my day" but I was determined not to focus on the little stuff. I wanted the day to be about the celebration and seeing my friends and family. I am sure my "low key" lack of decisive responses was infuriating to others, in hindsight :giggle
 
My biggest piece of advice is to have short engagements because then you don't have time to spend much money ha ha! My hubby and i were engaged for 9 months and any longer and i know I would have started spending more money on stuff that we really didn't need. I made all my own invitations, but it took quite a lot of time. We also paid for our whole wedding ourselves, so that really helped up make sure we didn't go crazy. A friend of my Dad's did our photos for $500 I think? A friend of my Mom's did the flowers, so she gave us a bit of a break too. We had our reception at the local Elk's lodge and while it wasn't super fancy, we added some balloons and dressed up the elk's with Jimmy Buffet attire and then once we put all our friends in there, we had THE best night of fun and dancing and none of the rest mattered one bit.

Like others have said above, just pick the things that matter the most to you, like maybe the photographer and spend a bit more there so you can justify saving more on other things. It is so easy to get carried away with a wedding. Keep an excel spreadsheet from day one and add everything you spend on the wedding, so you can see that total growing. It's easy to think $20 here, $40 here is okay, but when you add it up it can be shocking! :giggle
 
Back
Top